Seweryn Klosowski, alias George Chapman, was executed on 7 April 1903. He poisoned three of his partners for unknown reasons. Rumours circulated that he was also Jack the Ripper. Inspector Abberline told a journalist that he felt Chapman was the man his officers struggled to catch fifteen years earlier. In 1994 Phillip Sugden regarded Chapman as the most likely of known Ripper suspects. The words of the finest detective and the finest historian investigating Jack the Ripper should be taken seriously but the case against Chapman is weak.

Abberline’s account relies on speculation, including links to murders in America. A later researcher, R. Michael Gordon, wrote three books accusing Chapman of being Jack the Ripper. One speculated that he murdered four women in New York between 1891 and 1892.  Chapman was in New York during some of this period, just as he was in the East End of London in 1888. The presence of a multiple killer in areas where multiple murders occurred may lead to suspicion but is not evidence of guilt.

After carefully examining the facts, Sugden concluded his chapter on Chapman with the words “not proven.” The same verdict must be applied to any suspect, who cannot be shown to be innocent.